GOP state senator proposes automatic tax rebate

Republican state Senator Jeremy Miller from Winona, the former majority leader, today (Wed) unveiled a plan to automatically send part of any future state budget surpluses directly back to taxpayers, if the legislature and governor don’t pass tax relief.  Miller says under his plan, if the budget forecast that comes out in November shows a surplus, three quarters of it — minus any current obligations — would be put in a special tax refund account:

“The legislature and the governor would have until March 1st of the following year to try to come to an agreement on a tax relief package.  If they can’t come to an agreement, the money would automatically be returned back to the taxpayers.”

A tentative agreement that fell apart at the end of the last legislative session would have sent about a third of the budget surplus back to taxpayers, so it’s unlikely that Democrats would go as high as 75 percent.